He was a partner with the Providence firm of Letts & Quinn
from 1943 to 1956 and was an active member of the Freemasons.[1]

Licht was elected to the Rhode Island Senate in 1949 and
served there until 1956. He sat on the Superior Court of Rhode
Island from 1956 to 1968. That year, he fought and won an underdog
campaign to oust Republican governor John Chafee, later a US Senator. He was
elected Governor of Rhode Island and served as the first Jewish holder of that office from 1969
to 1973.

As governor, he reversed campaign promises made in 1968 and
1970, pushing through Rhode Island's first income tax in order to resolve a worsening
fiscal crisis. He signed the tax bill minutes after the Senate
had passed it on a 26-24 vote, against the backdrop of some 500
angry demonstrators in the State House.